Why do we need poetry?

Why do we need poetry?


To let Love call onto itself

To let it sing it's own songs

To be it's listener

To be it's witness

To be it's instrument

To hear it speak

In the silences between.


--shubha

Migrant and the Aborigines

Migrant and the Aborigines


How do you infiltrate, what is your own?
I have staked a claim, to every visited land
With the seeds of love , sown
A migrant , in search of her native land,
I have not found one, I can disown

So I scatter myself in every place
In so doing, my self,erase
In that erasure, universality trace
And then I belong, to every place

Both the migrant and the aborigine
I am,in love,what I cannot be,in me.


--shubha

Life’s movements

Life’s movements

Hope mirrored in snow
At the cusp of two seasons
Life’s movements as change

—shubha

I dream a dream

I dream a dream

I dream a dream of awakening
From this life’s dream of our making
That our happiness is no longer hostage
A prisoner waiting in bondage
To seek its release ,in fulfillment
Ever in wait for a future of redemption
I dream a dream of awakening
Someday, here in the now, every thirst slaking

—shubha

Of Blind quests and the only promise

Of Blind quests and the only promise

In a world of reflections
I seek truth
In shifting , undulating smoke
I seek stillness
In tilting ,  twirling world
I seek balance
What can I be but disappointed?

With eyes following
Every flash of light
Hither, thither
Blinded by every illusion
I seek to see

While my heart calls, prompts
Not just this
Not just this
Close your eyes
Look within
And you will find
You will see
You will know
And above all
You will be
You
You will be
Love

—shubha

Weaving, unspooling

Weaving, unspooling

Weave not yet another tale
Of woe, loss intertwined
With gilt thread of gain, desire
All presumed to deliver
In it’s cosy expanse
A sense of happiness
Of being
Of purpose
To envelop you
Define your identity

But extract from this cloth
Of mind
Thread by thread of thought
Until naught remains
But love
Undivided , Indivisible

And you will
Envelop this world
All you see
And there will be
No other, No you

-shubha

Window full of sky

Window full of sky

Through the cragged windows
Of this abandoned city
The sky beckons
And yet chained
To fluid identity
Shifting duty
Fear binding my wings
Flight cannot be
Not yet

So each day , I gather
One window full of sky
At a time
And build my own
Within me
There I soar
There I am one with the sky

And all those times
When this abandoned city
Comes calling  with it’s stunned silence
I escape into my sky
For a few moments
Of freedom
A few moments
Of joy .


—shubha